Wisconsin Prosecutors Want Lawsuit Dismissed so Abortion Ban Can Keep Saving Babies

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Dec 1, 2022   |   5:37PM   |   Madison, Wisconsin

Three Wisconsin prosecutors fought back this week against state Attorney General Josh Kaul’s attempts to overturn a pro-life law that is saving unborn babies from abortion.

In separate filings, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski asked a judge to dismiss Kaul’s lawsuit, the AP reports.

The Wisconsin pre-Roe v. Wade abortion ban went into effect in June after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its infamous 1973 ruling. Now, unborn babies are being saved from abortion all across Wisconsin.

Kaul, a pro-abortion Democrat, filed a lawsuit challenging the ban, and three abortionists later joined him. However, they have not succeeded in convincing a court to block the law thus far.

Kaul’s lawsuit names district attorneys in counties where Planned Parenthood operated abortion facilities prior to the June ruling. Two are Democrats and one is a Republican, but all three said Kaul’s lawsuit “seeks to improperly restrict prosecutorial discretion” and he does not have standing to sue, according to the report.

Urmanski, the lone Republican, also said there is no merit to Kaul’s claim that the law should not be enforced simply because it is old.

“Plaintiffs are wrong when they claim a law no longer has the consent of the governed and must be reenacted when a prior decision (here, Roe and its progeny) holding the law unconstitutional is reversed by a subsequent decision (here, Dobbs),” Urmanski told the court, The Wisconsin State Journal reports. “Even after a court has determined a statute violates the Constitution, the statute nevertheless continues to exist unless and until it is repealed by the Legislature.”

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Urmanski said the state legislature and governor should be the ones to change the law, not the court, if they don’t believe it represents the will of the people. The Wisconsin Legislature has a pro-life majority; however, Gov. Tony Evers, a pro-abortion Democrat, has vetoed several pro-life bills in recent years.

Here’s more from the State Journal:

In his [separate] motion, Chisholm also maintains Kaul doesn’t have standing to bring the action but on different grounds, notably that “plaintiffs do not have the right or interest in controlling, usurping or directing defendants prosecutorial discretion as duly elected district attorneys in the counties that they serve.”

The law prohibits the killing of unborn babies in abortions. Exceptions are allowed if the mother’s life is at risk. In his lawsuit, the state attorney general claims the 1849 abortion ban, which could not be enforced under Roe, basically was repealed when the state legislature passed new abortion regulations in 1985.

“… we’re going to continue working to move the case forward expeditiously because there are people being impacted by this ban right now,” Kaul said earlier this fall. “And we want to get resolution on these issues.”

Prior to the June ruling Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, abortions were legal for any reason up to 20 weeks in Wisconsin, and more than 6,400 unborn babies were aborted every year.

In June, the Supreme Court overturned Roe in a historic victory for life and returned the power to legislate abortion to the people. Because of Dobbs, states may protect unborn babies from abortion for the first time in nearly 50 years. New research estimates state pro-life laws have saved as many as 10,000 unborn babies’ lives since June.

Currently, Wisconsin and 12 other states are enforcing laws that ban or strictly limit abortions. Nine additional states are battling in court to protect unborn babies from abortion.